One Piece

He also listed everyone’s ethnicities, or counterparts to them, like Luffy being Brazilian or Nami being Swedish. So if you got someone like say, Anna Diop (not bashing her, using an example) to play Nami, not only would the fans react in their usual restrained, nuanced manner, Oda would be asking what gives.

A South American Luffy as the lead would be pretty cool, though a black Usopp would have one or two problems even ignoring his role as comic relief. His drawn design would probably come off as flat-out racist if you showed him to someone and told them he was supposed to be African, and a black live-action actor would make it really hard to ignore his drawn design's Unfortunate Implications. As-is, his skin is pale enough that it's not obvious what race he's supposed to be (which is its own problem).

Maybe Hiddleston might not work. Zoro might be played by Diego Luna, Gael García Bernal, Shin Koyamada, Win Morisaki, Miyavi or Tadanobu Asano. Also, I'm guessing that some of the Straw Hats would be cast with relative unknowns, like with what happened in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. For the Baroque Works agents, Mr. 5 could be played by Ahmed Best or some other famous actor.

And given the visual effects (i.e. the Sea Kings, Devil Fruits) and possible blue-screen/green-screen for the ship sequences (i.e. the Going Merry, Shanks's ship, Luffy's rowboat at the beginning of the series, etc.), filming locations might include Fox Studios Australia, Pinewood Studios, etc.

I could be wrong though.

Edited by gjjones on Mar 12th 2019 at 12:53:14 PM

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If the show's just going to be a straight adapatation of One Piece from the start, there are worse properties they could tackle. The locations in the East Blue tend to be fairly grounded and realistic, with the wackiest location being the Baratie, which is just a boat crossed with a restaurant, or maybe Arlong Tower, but not a lot actually happens in the tower itself.

It's not until they get to the Grand Line that they start running into islands and locations that would be hard to recreate in live-action.

The show could also adapt the cover stories featured in the manga. After all, Sugita and Naito both mentioned the as-of-yet unnamed writer for the adaptation came up with some ideas that even impressed Oda. I can agree that the locations after the East Blue saga would be hard to recreate in live-action. When the Straw Hats get to the Grand Line, it could be where the visual effects or additional global locations (i.e. Morocco, Spain, Egypt, Australia or the United Arab Emirates for Alabasta; Iceland, Germany, Italy or Switzerland for Drum Island; Italy for Water 7; Australia, Hawaii or New Zealand for Little Garden or Skypiea; South America for Skypiea; and so on) may come into place. Just a thought.

Anyway, regarding the music for the adaptation, I'm guessing that a famous composer will adapt some of the original anime's music and songs (yes, that includes "We Are!") in addition to writing their own scores. Maybe Michael Giacchino, John Powell, Brian Tyler, David Newman, Randy Newman, Harry Gregson-Williams, Rupert Gregson-Williams, Alan Silvestri, Ramin Djawadi, Hans Zimmer, Joseph LoDuca, Junkie XL or even Danny Elfman would work?

Edited by gjjones on Mar 12th 2019 at 2:07:05 PM

No matter who you are, always be yourself.

PushoverMediaCriticNow my Spirit Ball is on autopilot!
from the Italy of America
Relationship Status: Is that a kind of food?

That's understandable. By the way, I've got a feeling that the Netflix description may turn out to be different when Tomorrow Studios will announce which channel or streaming service One Piece would be on. They could use the "King of the Pirates" terminology present in all English versions.

I wonder: when and where will the announcement be made? Maybe at SDCC or something later this year? Only time will tell at this point.

Edited by gjjones on Mar 12th 2019 at 2:19:00 PM

No matter who you are, always be yourself.

PushoverMediaCriticNow my Spirit Ball is on autopilot!
from the Italy of America
Relationship Status: Is that a kind of food?

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